Etsy Statistics: August 2013 Weather Report

The summer light might be fading, but can you smell the faint whiff of holiday traffic in the air? With a 43.2% increase in dollars of goods sold compared to last year (August 2012), and a 44.2% increase in items sold, the Etsy community is rearing up for a record-breaking season.

The stats:

$109.1 million of goods (after refunds and cancellations) were sold by our community in August, 8.13% higher than July

That represents 5,483,399 items sold for the month, 9.44% higher than July

2,804,300 new items were listed in the month, 3.46% higher than July

1,065,767 new members joined the Etsy community, 6.13% higher than July

1.8 billion page views were recorded on the site in August (including web and apps)

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Etsy community in August 2013!

Ed. Note: We discovered an error in how the statistic for number of items sold had been calculated for the months of January – July, 2013. The statistic and percentage comparisons on each of the reports have since been corrected, and we apologize sincerely for the error. We’re proud that as a company we share these reports with our community, and we hold ourselves to high standards when it comes to accuracy and transparency.

Curious about how other months compare? Check out our past Weather Reports for more statistics.

39 comments

Please explain something to me. I do not understand the items sold
vs. items listed stats. I just went through the WR for this year (8
months) and you are reporting a total of 40,176,587 items sold with
only 22,118,548 item listed. (a deficit of 18,058,039). That made
me curious, so I looked at 2012; The yearly total was 44,601,755
sold and 29,004,346 listed ( A deficit of 15, 597,409) That means
that in a course of 20 months listings are running at a deficit of
33,655,448 to items sold! Can that be accurate?

Could it be possible to get added to the report; - number of shops
that were active during the month - or even on the last day of the
month? - what the NET total membership is at the end of each month?

Are renewals counted in the "new listings", because if that is
true, then the actual items listed would be even smaller (because
of people relisting items over) and so the actual deficit between
sold and items listed owuld be even greater?? Math was never my
strong point! Please clarify!!

Would relisted items be also counted within the new listings stats?
If so doesn't that mean that there were even fewer actual new items
listed because the same item might be counted a couple of time -
thus meaning the deficit is even greater than I thought? Math has
never been my strong point, so I hope you can clarify this!

Good news! 1,680,919 more items sold this August than last August!
I'd like to see same month year to year comparisons as well as
August compared to July. Average pricepoint still around $20 that
had come up but not now. More sales for more people is great news!
Jill that would be super helpful.

August was amazing for me! Thanks for all of your work behind the
scenes Etsy! So putting my CPA skills to work here: folks raise the
same questions over and over again.... Would be nice to see this
data in a table/chart. Current Month / Prior Month / Prior Year
(same period) maybe add a 4th column - Rolling 12 month cumulative
Row data: Total Sales (adjusted) Total Qty sold %'s Total new
listings (who cares about relists) For fun, it be nice to see some
pie charts.... how do the categories on Etsy break out? Finally,
addressing Jills question: Say we had 10,000,000 items listed at
the end of July: 10,000,000 listings 2,804,300 new listings
5,483,399 items sold -------------- 7,320,901 listings at end of
August. If the numbers are correct, we sold more than we added, and
overall reduced our inventories. Always a good thing in business!
And finally, the same request over and over - why the secrecy Etsy?
How about a breakdown of Members by Type? Total Members / # Shops?
Then tell us how many addtions each month with comparisons to
prior. Anyway, love that we still continue to see growth, Thanks
Etsy!

Amy If there are new shops coming on board all the time, and
members are adding new items all the time, it seems to reason that
over the last 20 months inventory would have been replenished, at
at least an even pace with sales - not lagging EVERY month, for
month over month reductions ... that doesn't make sense to me! And
I agree about the secrecy, makes for hard planning and business
decisions! Would like to know how the seasons affect each category,
and if the sales are shifting from one category to another, etc
etc... If nothing more than breaking it down by
Handmade/vintage/and supplies. That should be able to be done by
the top category chosen when we list (even though perhaps not
always accurately!)

@jill2day — First, just to clarify, new listings are new listings
created on Etsy for the first time (not renewals). Secondly, this
is different from the total number of listings on Etsy. As you can
see from a search, we currently have over 21 million listings
active on the site! We're excited to be at a point where it's
normal and expected to have more items sold than listings created
in a given month. I should also point out that items sold is the
actual number of items sold on Etsy. A listing with a quantity of
more than 1 can mean more items sold for just 1 listing. Hope that
helps!

We're excited to be at a point where it's normal and expected to
have more items sold than listings created in a given month.
------------------------------ So it seems then, multiple item
listings (like 50 sales per 1 listing) work better for your numbers
than OOAK that are a one for one proposition?

Amy glad to hear it was good for you! As a Profitability Analyst
myself here not to mention umpteen years (ok lifetime) in your
field it's the only way to compare apples to apples so we keep
asking. The thing is having by category would show listing more in
some categories selling more in others as well. Remember most of
the excess in goods could be from new shops that have sold nothing
yet! That means the rest of the community listed more than was
sold! This is why a bit more specific could be so helpful as it
stands now does not really mean what it appears to in those ways at
first glance. So yes how many new shops AND items they listed would
be helpful too! Even what categories they're in. Michelle thank
you! Very helpful knowing renewed not included. I'd love to see how
many renewed even how many times. So then remember if as I said
above NEW listings that month also means that much more competition
to sell our existing ones. Then wrap your head around items now
selling and auto renewing so we are selling more units if they
could that as only one no matter how many times it sells if I'm
reading that right. Then too how long did it take all those newbies
to make all those new items. Again not an accurate picture in time
of that month alone but this just shows how big the report would
get!

August was okay for me. I think Pretty soon we won't be able to say
pre-holiday slump, or slow time of year. Etsy now has 31 or so
million members. By holiday season it will be pushing 35! That is
compared to around 20 million last year. Almost double the number
of buyers available. By next summer maybe 45 million. The whole
dynamic is definitely egoing to change that is way more buyers,
even for esoteric sellers. i just hope etsy doesn't get greedy and
start raising fees a lot to capitalize on popularity. Though, I
wouldn't mind seeing some auction style buying. Or at the least a
type of offer button on products. Maybe my price is only 3 dollars
too high for someonel. I would likely be glad to accommodation,
however, as it stands there is no way to know how many sales I
might miss for a few bucks.

It's so helpful to see the analysis and questions about this
report. It helps me think about my business. I've been wanting a
breakdown by, at a minimum, the big 3 categories—handmade,
supplies, vintage—since my initial involvement. Sometimes I think
that there is a fear out there that if this information is provided
that Etsyians who sell in a category that isn't at the top will be
worried. I think knowledge is power. It seems like if a buyer can
search via a category, it ought to be possible to provide sales
totals by category. Alas, I'm no techno geek, so maybe I'll have to
find one who can explain this hitch to me. I do appreciate the
information that is provided though.

I'd like to hear more about the page views- is that up or down from
previous months and years? With all the griping about shops views
lately, maybe you can explain some of the changes in spread of
those views since there are always new shops and items being
listed.

These stats work great for Etsy but totally ignore the fact that
individual shops are dying. Specifically vintage shops. If all Etsy
is going to do is track overall numbers then it's basically become
a self-serving corporation. Someone there needs to run numbers on
performance of individual shops. Actual stats on individual shops
will show a high number are in the tank. We care about Etsy but we
care about OUR shops more. As a dealer I'm happy for you and
frightened for your myopia and poor communications.

I would like to know how each category is doing. I sell wedding
stationery - so I would be interested to see how the sales are
spread across the categories. For example, September really was
quiet for me: was this consistent with wedding sellers in general?
Is this possible please Etsy? can we sign up for a more specific
weather report perhaps, so we can have relevant data to us? Thanks